The top 29 most annoying things to say to people with any type of diabetes:
My grandma had diabetes. She lost her leg, then she died. (Thank you, that’s inspiring!)
You’ll die if you eat sugar, right?
You have diabetes? You don’t look that fat. (Gee, thanks….)
You take insulin? Oh, you must have the bad kind of diabetes. (Really? What’s the good kind?)
Your child has diabetes? Did they get it because you fed them too much candy?
Oh my god, you have to take shots every day? I’d die if I had to do that. (Well, I’d die if I didn’t.)
Doesn’t that hurt? (Um, yeah, it’s a sharp object going into my body. Duh!)
Well, that sounds better than something like leukemia.
Oh my god, can you eat that? You can’t eat that!
That’s the disease that causes you to lose your legs, right?
I heard you can cure that with diet and exercise. (Great, that sounds so easy!)
I eat so much sugar, I’m probably gonna give myself diabetes, too!
So you just have to avoid sugar, and you’re okay, right?
Why don’t you get a pump that just manages it for you?
My friend’s daughter has one of those pump things that just manages it for her.
Are you allowed to eat that? (Is it your job to police me?)
You just have to take insulin sometimes, and you’re okay, right? (Yup! It’s that simple.)
They say cinnamon can level your blood sugars.
They say (any random food) can level your blood sugars.
Your kid has diabetes? Well, at least he can grow out of it.
You have diabetes and celiac disease? Geeeez, how many diseases do you have?
You have diabetes? But you look normal. (You mean my freaky diabetes features haven’t shown yet?)
So you just have to, like, manage it and you’re fine? (Yup, except the “manage it” part is kind of huge!)
You have diabetes? But it seems like you take such good care of yourself?
You need to exercise more and you can cure it.
You’ll die if you have children, right? Like Steel Magnolias? (Nope, thanks a lot, Julia Roberts!)
Ewww! You have to take shots? That is so gross! (Um, thanks…but it keeps me alive.)
Well, it’s your fault, right, for eating too much and not exercising?
Oh, you have diabetes? That sucks! (Yes, thanks for reminding me!)
I love it! I have been type 1 for 12 years since I was 15. I think I have heard every single one of these lines. HA HA! Thanks for writing it down for us! I knew nothing about the disease before diagnosis. If the world only knew what it takes to manage.
The only one that ever got to my gut: "I hate that your mother (from an in-law) has this disease that can ruin our children's health." (grandchildren, by the way..) That has been the most devastating.
I talk freely about diabetes and have my whole life, as it helps those around me understand better. I have had very few of the 29 comments in 50 years, but often my return are the infamous words of my mother: "well, you could have diarrhea forever." Kind of puts it into perspective.
Her philosophy makes me smile when the "Most Annoying Things" are asked.
Maybe not annoying , because when I heard it I had to laugh and had a chance to educate (...I never owned a Pager ) ... Maitre D at restaurant, while I was pressing insulin pump buttons for food bolus : " I have not seen a Pager for at least 20 years "
I just posted these on another thread on this: here goes...
maybe if you just change your diet, you won't need insulin
I saw this video on youtube where this guy cured his diabetes and doesn't need insulin anymore
You can't be type1, only children are type 1, you can't be in dka, I can tell from talking to you on the phone, you're blood sugar isn't high enough, but you can go to an er if you want to...
so, who is managing your diabetes for you? , my reply was I am, 24hrs a day!! lol
in a restaurant last night after I asked how long the food would take due to me having D: so are there any food allergies we need to know about? This was funny, not really annoying- he was a very nice waiter...
You're type 1? with a look of horror, so I guess you're flying by the seat of your pants...?
After a while you will get to know your body and you won't have to test that much- this was from one of the insurance nurse who help me on the phone: as well as: the only adults I know who are type 1 had some sort of trauma or surgery to cause it.
I was injecting in a restaurant once. You know how even when you're discreet, every now and then there's this looky-loo that you can't shake. So I drew up the insulin where she could see and pulled my eyelids apart and started coming towards my eyeball with the syringe. She sure as hell looked away real quick
Okay, Cat...THAT had me laughing out loud...almost fell off my chair! Wish I'd thought of that when I used to be on shots and occasionally got "those looks."
And the pager one...someone said to me a few weeks back, "wow, I thought pagers were had gone out with the dark ages." I simply smiled and said, "They did!"
I work as a cashier at my local whole foods and while I was bagging for a coworker my type 1 diabetes came up and the guest asked if my diabetes “still bothered me.” When I responded that I would have this for the rest of my life she told me I was wrong and marched away…
I encountered a slight variant on the grandma/amputation story in the lady sitting next to me asked my opinion on her BG and staying top of it, explaining that her own mom had been killed by diabetes after hospitalization, amputations, etc. I explained that I would be very cautious approaching it and to take any sort of "flutter" seriously since doctors don't always approach BG seriously and levels and things. She'd had a "borderline" test and was a bit freaked out. I also explained that T2 can be more difficult than T1, particularly since doctors and standards are so slackadaisical.
"slackadaisacal" is a hilarious term, Acidrock. What is not so funny is how many diabetic horror stories people tell me. Just yesterday my kind next-door neighbor, an adequately controlled type 2 herself, reported that she will have to visit her out-of-state older sister. This sister, who had a stroke last year, is blind in one eye from retinopathy, and is to have more major eye surgery next week; believes that she is "borderline diabetic" because that is what her GP told her years ago. she admitted not seeing blood glucoses under 200 for years. but she does not test much. Just started seeing an endo, and my neighbor wants to rescue her from the river of denial.
Back to OP's topic: I have heard or heard of all 29 comments. I hear, "You are diabetic? But you do not LOOK diabetic!" Reminds me of the Sheena Easton/ Prince collaboration ( 1996?) You've got the Look Got to find it on Youtube and jam.lol
